Justice touches every part of a Canadian's life as certainly as medicine does, like medicine, justice affects the mental and physical well being of every Canadian.
Canadian society has become so increasingly legally regulated in each and every thing we do. Cameras are on street locations considered “high risk.” At intersections on our roads considered “high risk” for accidents someone is always watching us so that the Law can see what’s going on.
We have now, each and every one of us, to wear seatbelts; when we don’t, we end up in court. Children, by law, have to be provided with seating devices in automobiles and when that doesn’t meet the requirements of the law, we wind up in court. So what has justice or the law become? It has become a highly public issue. Law or justice is no longer just a matter of the black and white, right or wrong, it is now more than ever a very grey area that requires you, more than ever, to attend court.
When someone is accused of a legal offense it is no longer, even when it comes to speeding tickets, a matter of right or wrong, there are often many areas of grey. The every day or ordinary man and woman is ending up in court, foreign territory for most of us, and we, each and every, one of us need to provide ourselves with a defense that costs money we do not have.
Because access to the justice system is not equal you may find yourself feeling bitter as a result of being unable to afford even an adequate defense, or for that matter, any defense. When you have power, privilege, and politics on your side, you have the resources to access justice.
Take for example the privilege that politics brings. The local press, The Daily News and The Chronicle Herald reported recently that the minister of social services has moved to quash a court order that required the minister of social services to attend the teen's case conference in Halifax youth court as her legal guardian. Yet within days, while others are forced to wait and have to place their lives on hold, the minister of social services can jump the queue to get a Supreme Court of Nova Scotia hearing as quickly as thought. Membership has its rewards in respect to justice in Nova Scotia.
Unless you are wealthy, or you were born wealthy, you are denied access to the legal defense you need. You, though innocent, may wind up in jail. Jail is no longer the reserve of guilty it used to be. You could end up there too. People comfort themselves by thinking that jail is the exclusively reserved for those who were brought up wrong, or who were exposed to violence during their childhood years, or those who were abused. That is no longer today any more. You may end up in there with them.
It is just a matter of time before it happens to you. Security in the ever present justice system that is evolving is, or should be our number one priority in case you haven’t noticed. How many people know how you qualify for legal aid in Nova Scotia? How many people realize the working poor have no eligibility for legal aid in Nova Scotia?
If you make, as a single individual, more that $13,000.00 annually in Nova Scotia, you have no eligibility for legal aid and yet you may be facing a trial that can cost you thousands of dollars you do not have. Thousand of hours and skills you may not have, may be required or be involved in order that you get just an adequate legal defense.
Your defense may require that you leave your employment, or you may get fired, though innocent, because of the charges laid against you in the first place. Moreover, pending charges may show up on a criminal record search even though you have not been proven guilty which suggests that innocence until being found guilty in Nova Scotia has been removed from the justice system. Future employers may have second thoughts about hiring you, or even a current employer might consider firing for some other unrelated circumstance. Most people want to crack down even harder. What do you do? What resources would you have to fight for your freedom?
Consider that you may lose your life to a so-called legal process that may take years on the signature of some old, career managing crown attorney, looking for promotion in a backwater town who simply has the unchecked power to do it. The charges have their own momentum and there are no checks or balances in place to prevent the crown from stealing years of your life from you.
There is a case to be made for Legalcare in Canada which parallels our struggle for Medicare. It is an essential struggle that needs to begin now. We cannot expect the lawyers to lead this struggle and, as with Medicare, the struggle may, as in Saskatchewan, begin at someone’s kitchen table, propelling them into politics.
The challenge which lies ahead for Canadian is obviously enormous, but we are a patient people and justice will prevail and those who thwart it, beware.
Canadian society has become so increasingly legally regulated in each and every thing we do. Cameras are on street locations considered “high risk.” At intersections on our roads considered “high risk” for accidents someone is always watching us so that the Law can see what’s going on.
We have now, each and every one of us, to wear seatbelts; when we don’t, we end up in court. Children, by law, have to be provided with seating devices in automobiles and when that doesn’t meet the requirements of the law, we wind up in court. So what has justice or the law become? It has become a highly public issue. Law or justice is no longer just a matter of the black and white, right or wrong, it is now more than ever a very grey area that requires you, more than ever, to attend court.
When someone is accused of a legal offense it is no longer, even when it comes to speeding tickets, a matter of right or wrong, there are often many areas of grey. The every day or ordinary man and woman is ending up in court, foreign territory for most of us, and we, each and every, one of us need to provide ourselves with a defense that costs money we do not have.
Because access to the justice system is not equal you may find yourself feeling bitter as a result of being unable to afford even an adequate defense, or for that matter, any defense. When you have power, privilege, and politics on your side, you have the resources to access justice.
Take for example the privilege that politics brings. The local press, The Daily News and The Chronicle Herald reported recently that the minister of social services has moved to quash a court order that required the minister of social services to attend the teen's case conference in Halifax youth court as her legal guardian. Yet within days, while others are forced to wait and have to place their lives on hold, the minister of social services can jump the queue to get a Supreme Court of Nova Scotia hearing as quickly as thought. Membership has its rewards in respect to justice in Nova Scotia.
Unless you are wealthy, or you were born wealthy, you are denied access to the legal defense you need. You, though innocent, may wind up in jail. Jail is no longer the reserve of guilty it used to be. You could end up there too. People comfort themselves by thinking that jail is the exclusively reserved for those who were brought up wrong, or who were exposed to violence during their childhood years, or those who were abused. That is no longer today any more. You may end up in there with them.
It is just a matter of time before it happens to you. Security in the ever present justice system that is evolving is, or should be our number one priority in case you haven’t noticed. How many people know how you qualify for legal aid in Nova Scotia? How many people realize the working poor have no eligibility for legal aid in Nova Scotia?
If you make, as a single individual, more that $13,000.00 annually in Nova Scotia, you have no eligibility for legal aid and yet you may be facing a trial that can cost you thousands of dollars you do not have. Thousand of hours and skills you may not have, may be required or be involved in order that you get just an adequate legal defense.
Your defense may require that you leave your employment, or you may get fired, though innocent, because of the charges laid against you in the first place. Moreover, pending charges may show up on a criminal record search even though you have not been proven guilty which suggests that innocence until being found guilty in Nova Scotia has been removed from the justice system. Future employers may have second thoughts about hiring you, or even a current employer might consider firing for some other unrelated circumstance. Most people want to crack down even harder. What do you do? What resources would you have to fight for your freedom?
Consider that you may lose your life to a so-called legal process that may take years on the signature of some old, career managing crown attorney, looking for promotion in a backwater town who simply has the unchecked power to do it. The charges have their own momentum and there are no checks or balances in place to prevent the crown from stealing years of your life from you.
There is a case to be made for Legalcare in Canada which parallels our struggle for Medicare. It is an essential struggle that needs to begin now. We cannot expect the lawyers to lead this struggle and, as with Medicare, the struggle may, as in Saskatchewan, begin at someone’s kitchen table, propelling them into politics.
The challenge which lies ahead for Canadian is obviously enormous, but we are a patient people and justice will prevail and those who thwart it, beware.
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